Why no coralline?

[mikeandjenn99]

I've had my tank up and running for almost 7 months now, and I have no coralline growth on the glass. I have a couple of spots here and there on my powerheads, but only a couple. Any idea why I don't have any growth? My calcium levels are never below 400, and usually closer to 430ppm. All other levels are perfect. I'd like to get a little more growth. Any suggestions?

[celano]

Not sure how much truth there is to this, but I've read that with PC lighting your not gonna get the same coraline growth as you would with say MH or T5's.
It has something to do with the PC lighting not being intense enough I think...maybe someone else can back me up on this?

[NickBee]

I’ve researched this also. Check your phosphates. Mine are sitting at around .1 which I hear can hinder coral growth (along with coralline algae). I’m in the process of adding chaeto in a fuge to help combat the phosphates…

[mikeandjenn99]

Well as far as lighting goes, I have 2 10k and 2 actinic bulbs going, each at 65w. I know it's not MH light, but pretty darn bright.
As far as phosphates, every time I test, I get 0.

Thanks for the input so far!!

[Captain Amazing]

Coraline will grow fine with PC lighting. Hows the growth on your rocks? Why do you want there to be coraline growth on your glass? I'm not an expert, but I would think with how often we scrub the glass (or acrylic) and clean it, a hard encrusting algae like coraline would have a tough time starting out.

[mikeandjenn99]

Well, I had a good bit of growth on my rocks in the first month or two, but it seems like to halted. I'm not really wanting it on the glass, but I figured it would be a good indicator of growth everywhere else if it was on the back glass.

[six.line]

Corraline will come. Just give it time. I know it seems like 7 months is a long time, but I didn't really start to see crazy corraline until after a year. If you've had your tank up a year and you're still having a hard time getting growth, I'd say you've got some chemistry problems.

Even with no detectable phosphate, put chaeto and/or caulerpa in the refugium. It's just plain a good idea.

I personally think that PurpleUp and other such dosing chemicals are a waste. If you keep up on water changes and dose calcium as needed (because clams/corals take it all out of the water) then you'll be fine.

Hope that helps.

[zma21]

I guess i just got lucky. My rocks are filling with coraline as we speak and i have only had my tank running for a little over a month.

[SeaView]

I have always heard that you need to have the coraline algae spores in your tank to get it to grow. Should be on most live rock but maybe you don't have as much or just a slow growing species or one thats needs different params - light, flow, then your tank provides. I never had Red coraline till I put in a small rock with a small patch. Now the red is growing in several different places.

You might want to seed your tank with several differnt types and see what grows best. Just get some small peices of rubble or rock from a fellow reefer that has good coraline growing on them and just place in your tank. Some also say to scrape off the algae or crush it to release the spores.

[Joshua1023]

I had the same issue. Plenty of seeded rock in the tank and 8 months later---nothing. I really wasn't worried about the coraline, I was just curious as to why it wasn't growing like everyone elses. I got the advise to slowly raise the alkalinity up to like 12 or 13 and that would "kick-start" my coraline growth. I started to raise it slowly and right about at a reading of 10, purple spots started popping up everywhere. Might work for you.

[t5Nitro]

Is your calcium levels good around 430-450?

[mikeandjenn99]

Ok, I'll try to slowly raise the alk and see what happens.

t5Nitro- the readings are consistantly around 430

[littlemannin]

I have found that ALK and calcium are key. As far as the PC lights. Thats what I have (130w PC) and I have a ton of purple red and green coraline. I keep my ALK about 11

[artman18944]

dont forget magnesium must be maintained in proper relation to calcium

[Pistonkev]

First yes it grows great under pc's try Bionic two part as a buffer it will really help.